4 persistent disparities in Minnesota’s improving job market

Minnesota’s job market has improved a lot since the end of the recession.

Unemployment fell to 4.6 percent in December, and as you can see in the above chart, overall employment has recovered what it lost in the downturn.

But getting a good job is still a huge challenge for many Minnesotans, as a recent report from the Minnesota Budget Project shows. Here are four groups struggling to keep up, all following charts courtesy of the Minnesota Budget Project:

People with less education

Minnesotans without a high school diploma have an unemployment rate of 13.2 percent. Those with a high school education have an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent. Those with a college diploma, by contrast, have an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent.

Young workers

Young Minnesotans have seen their jobless rates improve, but 16- to 24-year-olds are still unemployed at a rate of 9.1 percent. This also is in contrast to older workers.

Single parent families

One out of ten single parents remained unemployed in 2013.

Minorities

The unemployment rate for people of color went completely haywire in Minnesota during the recession – particularly for African Americans and Native Americans. Their joblessness has declined since 2011, but is still well above the rate for white Minnesotans.